Nightmare Mythos

Chapter 99: Failed Conceptualization

Whoosh!

An incoming wand that aimed towards his head, the Floor of Darkness was doing its job by protecting him from it. The Keeper wielded the same brutal force it had earlier, its eyes now brimming with malice as it relentlessly continued its assault.

However, the strength of the Nightmare had grown to the point where it could effortlessly crush the walls of darkness that Cesar had built. As a result, the effort of exerting out and wasting essence continued to dwindle Cesar's reserves, sucking them dry.

The replicated eyes that Cesar had gathered from the book still took out a substantial reserve from his tank. Still, it wasn't enough to take a large amount like it did by freezing the time earlier.

Swoosh—!

"Fuck!"

Hovering through the air, desperately wishing that the Dive Period would commence right away, Cesar started dodging those attacks.

After all, that was the real goal.

The moment he mentioned buying time for the group to retrieve Jeremiah was an impulsive decision, driven by the urgency of their dwindling time. It wasn't really a foolproof plan but just spoken out of a whim.

Besides, Cesar wanted to test if the Null and Purge facets of Jeremiah were enough to stop the Keeper from doing its actions.

Spell caster creatures are much worse than brute force attacks but if someone can render their attacks using these spells, their chances will be heightened exponentially.

But it seemed help wasn't coming yet.

Whoosh—!

Hovering through the air to avoid the incoming hit, Cesar mainly lowers the consumption of his Floor of Darkness by limiting the area of effect.

His actions weren't deemed progressive, nonetheless. He was already struggling when blocking the attack earlier before the new appearance of the Keeper, but now that changed, even the smash of its wand was enough to crush every wall he had built to protect himself.

Now he was merely waiting for a chance to pass by or another opening he could exploit that could possibly turn the tables.

Swoosh—!

But the relentless swinging of the bat was enough to destroy them and put his plan b to the test which is to run mid-air while using the floor of darkness to either land or hop into.

"I got it now..."

Amidst the chaos, Cesar noticed something about the Keeper that pressed him to voice his thoughts audibly, searching for any possible weaknesses he could exploit.

"Is it me or does the Keeper seem so exhausted from the last time he cast three spells altogether in dozens of seconds? It was using its raw strength for now because it was trying to recuperate its void powers to eliminate?"

Cedeit commented with a snarky remark, "I thought you already knew but I can only agree to that as well, not certainly, however. Your words are the only logical thing you made up to this situation without rejecting anything which is why I'm agreeing to it,"

"Ahh..."

His efforts were fruitless.

The artificial fire disappeared.

"You are doing it wrong,"

The phrase echoing in Cesar's mind resonated through his entire body, compelling him to halt as two of the Nightmare's wands approached, aiming to constrict him in their grasp.

Thud—!

"Argh!"

Struggling to keep up with the wand that continued plowing him in the middle, Cesar let out an angry scream.

'Have I been wrong!? I thought I was on the right track! Damn it!'

Feeling the pressure mounting on both of his sides, Cesar's walls of darkness kept breaking down due to the pressure mounting nonstop.

Crash—!

No matter how many times he replaced the broken walls, The Keeper was fast on pounding its wand to it relentlessly, giving Cesar no time to breathe.

"Fucking—"

Crack—!

Cesar started to visualize the paper figurines but something complicated like when the artificial fire was much easier didn't come by easily.

Crack—!

Suddenly, Cesar heard a familiar sound from somewhere, but he couldn't divert his attention from it while his focus remained solely on protecting himself.

Only then did he notice that a glowing rope had been tethered, clinging onto his abdomen before he was strongly pulled backward by the reeling that came from his back.

"Purge!"

Leaping down from above, the tattooed Jeremiah aimed his spear at the Keeper and extended his other available hand to activate his first facet.

Pointing two of his fingers at the Nightmare, Jeremiah then muttered silently,

"Null,"